I keep burning up brake light bulbs

[86Five-0]

I got a little problem. Seems like my car likes to go through brake/tailight bulbs like it's its job. I have replaced pretty much all the bulbs out back in the past and recently I replaced the driver's side bulb and now last night my friend said that my right side bulb was out(brake) but the tail works. WTF is the problem??? Do I have a short somewhere or maybe have to check a ground? My dumy brake light in my console has been on for weeks too. Anyone have any suggestions? BTW this is happening on my '86 if that matters.

 

[five_o_stang]

I think you're spending too much time pressing the wrong pedal. It's the one on the RIGHT!!!!!!!! HAHA...just kidding. I have NO idea what would cause that. I've had the same rear lights in my car for 70K+ miles w/o one burning out. Hope ya get it fixed, though.

 

[five_o_stang]

OH.. as for the dummy brake light. Mine would come on and off randomly a while back. It turned out to be low brake fluid. That's Ford's roundabout way of letting you know you're low I guess. Hope that helps.

 

[D347643]

id check all circuit protection first. there could be tons of things causing the bulbs to burn out: blown circuit protection, short to power from another circuit( after the protection), wrong bulbs, etc. As for checking a ground, arent the brakelight/taillight switches on the ground side of the circuit anyway? so i doubt its grounding out. haha i dont know man im getting confused just thinking about it. Remember, a bulb is a load and the main reason they blow out is when they get too much power to them.

good luck,

Drew

 

[86Five-0]

Yeah i dunno, I'm pretty stumped. My brakes work fine, fluid's full, I should know cause over the past year I've replaced practically every component of the brakes(front rotors/pads, brake hoses, rear drums resurfaced, all new hardware, , new p/b booster, new fluid) I've probably gone through 4 bulbs in the matter of a year and half. Something is definately wrong. I hate having to find electrical problems especially in cars. :o(( And dammit it's like -7* in my garage.

 

[86Five-0]

Aight, thanks guys, I'm gonna go and buy a set of new bulbs and check it out and hopefully not freeze my dik off. LOL

 

[quiksilver9531]

get a heater for that garage

 

[86Five-0]

Well I'm back from the garage, got the little electric heater in there that helped out just a tiny bit But anyways, I pulled the bulb out and it was black. The parking light still worked cause the filament was still intact but the brake light filament was toast. Also the plug where the bulb hooks up looked pretty dirty and kinda sooty. I tried gettin a wire brush in there to clean out the contacts and applied some electrical contact grease in there, did it to both left and right side plugs and put bulbs back in. The driver side bulb which I had replaced like a week ago still looked new. And my dumy light inside didn't light up. I guess the dumy light was tellin the truth about the bulb(s) all along. Well who knows but at least now all my lights work(knock on wood). And I finally got the bulb holder I needed for one of my foglights so I got them workin too(Marchals)